Existential
by alex-halcyon
Summary: "Well, I would assume that Sasuke's theory about inter-dimensional travel was true and we've just proven it." - In which Sakura and Kakashi have accidentally traveled through space and time and ended up in a reality where they never existed in the first place, Jiraiya and Tsunade are married, and there's no such thing as a jinchuuriki.


**hello! so this is just supposed to be a little bit of a fun, romantic, slightly dramatic tale of a space-time dimensional travel with two of my favourite characters, Sakura and Kakashi.**

 **Just FYI, it is NOT a KakaSaku fic. **

**Anyways. This is just some fun, in a slightly headcannony world and a bunch of 'what ifs'.**

 **Enjoy!**

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 **Summary:**

 _"Well, I would assume that Sasuke's theory about inter-dimensional travel was true….and we've just proven it." -_ In which Sakura and Kakashi have accidentally traveled through space and time and ended up in a reality where they never existed in the first place, Jiraiya and Tsunade are married, and there's no such thing as a jinchuuriki.

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 **ONE**

After everything they'd been through, Kakashi Hatake and Sakura Haruno had learned to roll with the punches, which was good considering the odd predicament they found themselves in: they'd somehow managed to travel across dimensions and land themselves in an alternate version of their lives. Considering they weren't in control of getting here, and that they didn't have a clue on how to get back to their times, they didn't have a good feeling about the duration of their stay.

The first hint — well, second, after they fell out of some weird black hole into a part of the forest surrounding Konoha and couldn't find any of their teammates — that something was odd was going on was when they were closing in on Konoha and Kakashi paused as he peered at the Hokage Monument.

Sakura glanced back at him.

"What is it?" She asked him.

"Was there any construction planned on Hokage monument?" Kakashi asked.

"No…" Sakura turned back to the direction of the village and squinted at the monument. "Umm… Kakashi…"

"Yeah…"

Sakura swallowed.

"Tsunade's head is gone."

Kakashi hummed.

"Why is Lady Tsunade's head gone? _Where_ has her head gone?"

Kakashi took a deep breath and looked at his panicked student.

"Well, I would assume that Sasuke's theory about inter-dimensional travel was true….and we've just proven it." He put his hands on Sakura's shoulders. "Deep breaths, Sakura. We don't know what we've landed in, so why don't we go for a bit of a walk and try to calm down before we try and figure this out, okay?"

She gave a shaky nod and they turned back the way they came, heading into the forest and away from Konoha. They walked for a few minutes, going deeper into a more protected area, and the two of them had minor panic attacks. Sakura's was more visual and audible, with panting and shaking of her head and wringing of her hands. Kakashi silently stared at a tree, unmoving for a period of time.

When they both settled down, they made a plan: protect their identities, figure out when and where they were. There were no guarantees they hadn't only traveled across space, it was possible they'd also traveled through time.

Kakashi had been waiting for it, and when Sakura finally exploded from the delayed anger, he could only watch with faint amusement and mild fear as she trembled with rage, cursing Sasuke and Naruto for their ridiculous experimentations and idiotic behaviour. It was sunset by the time she calmed down, and several trees had been decimated. She took a deep breath and picked up a piece of wood that had broken off and lay on the ground, looking weakly back at Kakashi.

"Firewood?"

He only gave her a little, amused and tired, snort.

"Like that was your intention all along," he murmured.

Sakura gave him a little smile and took a seat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder comfortably.

"Do you think we'll ever get back?" She asked quietly.

Kakashi didn't answer for a long time, and neither of them moved. Sakura's 'firewood' lay unused, even as night fell and the air chilled.

"I don't know, Sakura," Kakashi replied quietly. "I just don't know."

Sakura lifted her head from his shoulder and nodded, laying on her side, curled up in herself, as if she would go to sleep. She didn't, and neither did he. Which was good, because if they had fallen asleep they would have been even more surprised by their unexpected nighttime visitor; Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

The word came unbidden from Kakashi's mouth in shock.

"Sensei?"

Sakura whipped her head to Kakashi, eyes wide in disbelief and Kakashi's own eye widened with the realisation of what he'd said, and then narrowed at the ANBU he felt hidden and watching them in the shadows. He did his best to appear unthreatening and Sakura did the same.

Sakura clenched her jaw slightly, mentally cursing Kakashi for his slip-up, before turning back to take in the man standing before her. He was very like Naruto, and yet very unlike him in so many ways, there was something different about him compared to what she'd seen when he'd been reanimating during the war but she couldn't quite grasp what it was.

Minato stared at them, his eyes flashing slightly at the term that fell from Kakashi's mouth, and then his face was wiped of emotion as he surveyed the clearing, and then rested on them. He looked at Kakashi's headband, glanced at Sakura's own, and frowned.

"You wear the symbol of my village, and yet I have no recollection of you - " his eyes landed on Sakura, narrowing in on the diamond on her forehead, " - either of you. You also appear to have destroyed part of my forest."

He was very displeased at that. They could feel his anger and suspicion.

"Who are you?"

Sakura swallowed and looked up at Kakashi. This was not what they had expected, not at all. How in the world he knew they were even there was something both of them questioned, but Kakashi knew him better than Sakura and assumed that he'd sensed their arrival earlier and had been watching them ever since. Minato was more than capable of hiding from Kakashi, despite how much Kakashi's skills had improved in the fifteen or so years since Minato had died in their other timeline.

Kakashi gave Minato a measured look.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," he said after a moment.

So they were going to tell the truth then, Sakura realised. She understood. she didn't want to lie either, but she had a feeling they were going to have a tough time convincing the Fourth Hokage of this time of their honesty.

Minato looked unimpressed at the response Kakashi gave.

"We're… travelers," Sakura said slowly drawing his attention from Kakashi to her.

The intensity of his gaze made her heart skip.

"...Across time and space."

At that, he raised an eyebrow. Sakura cleared her throat.

"I'm willing to have the Yamanaka enter my mind to confirm the truth," she offered weakly.

Kakashi glanced at her and then nodded his own assent.

"What are your names?" Minato questioned, frowning deeply.

"Sakura Haruno," Sakura responded. "Uh, sorry about the trees. That was my fault."

Minato's lips twitched slightly, but he didn't reply, instead, he looked at Kakashi expectantly.

"Kakashi Hatake."

Minato's eyes widened.

"Hatake?" He breathed.

His eyes flickered to his hair and then back to his face, his mind seemed to be going through a number of things all at once.

"Yes?" Kakashi replied uncertainly, wondering why his surname was the point of interest and not that he used to be the man's student - or was he not, in this reality? The thought was unsettling.

Minato's face hardened, and Kakashi and Sakura both swallowed hard at the unexpected response that made them both shiver with fear.

"You will both be escorted into Konohagakure and placed under arrest until further notice," he said in a hard voice. "If you resist, you will die. Do you agree?"

"Do we have a choice?" Sakura muttered.

Minato didn't bother to respond, and the ANBU came out of the shadows and escorted them under the cover of darkness into the village that was, and also wasn't, their home.

They spent the next week in the dungeons of Torture and Interrogation, and Sakura was grateful that the Hokage hadn't signed them up for actual torture and only interrogation. He'd even listened to her offer to allow the Yamanaka into their heads, although Kakashi was less enthusiastic about it, telling her that even though this was home, it wasn't. They didn't know these shinobi, and these shinobi didn't know them. It was hard for Sakura to have people she recognised look at her as if she were an enemy.

After Inoichi - who Sakura instinctively knew was basically exactly the same in this timeline as their own - had been inside her head, he looked at her with amazement but didn't say anything to her until he'd reported his findings to Minato.

That was how they found out that this reality was way more complicated than they ever realised, since, you know, in this new world they'd landed in, _neither of them ever existed._


End file.
